Chapter 4
5 long years had passed. Everyone was starting to accept that we couldn’t change what happened, we couldn’t bring them back. you woke up in Greenwich. you spent a lot more time here after the snap, there was a peace about it, the meditation and practice helped to steady your emotions and at least try to come to terms with the loss.
It was time to make your way back to the compound though, it had been two days. you didn’t like leaving the compound very long. you did stop for groceries on my way, your cabinets were becoming rather bare.
“Sorry I missed the meeting” you held the groceries up in defense “I figured you’d send a recap email anyways.” your words began to die off at the end as you walked around the corner and saw Steve standing there. you gave a quiet “Hey” coupled with a wave of a handful of grocery bags, before ducking into the kitchen to put things away. Then you heard the alert that someone was outside and figured the eggs could sit on the counter for a minute.
It was Scott Lang waving up at the screen. “Is this an old video?” Steve asked you and Nat both shook your heads as she answered, “that’s the front gate.” What the hell, we all figured he got lost in the snap. you all fumbled to the button to open the gate and let him in.
He was a mumbling mess, pacing, around our office room. He began explaining quantum physics and his experiences in the quantum realm. Eventually you land on a time machine, he wants to make a time machine. We only got one guy with that kind of technology and brain power.
you pull up to the cabin. Tony and his daughter stand on the porch, he and Nat have a silent conversation before he sends Morgan inside. He is less inclined on venturing into the world of time travel. Or a time heist as Scott coined. Eventually Morgan was sent out to save him, and you were invited to stay only if we dropped the time heist conversation.
That means you were left with option two. This time meeting up at a diner. you slid into the booth next to Scott as Banner sat at the end of the table. He was larger, and green, but not the hulk, completely. But he’s still one of the smartest people you’ve ever known.
It was cute too, He seemed happier having this balance. Some kids even wanted to come up and take some pictures with him. So Scott leaned back in his seat and you ducked down so that he could get a good shot. Then it got awkward when they didn’t want to take a picture with Scott, or really even knew who ant-man was. Scott snapped a little at the kids. Got to diffuse the situation a little. you quickly looked around the table and found a napkin crumpling it up “Do you want to see a magic trick?” you grabbed the kids' attention away from Scott. “Hold out your hands” you instructed on of the kids “Okay, now you” handing the napkin to the other one “throw this at me” they looked confused but she threw the napkin and you opened up a quick portal for the napkin to sail through and fall into the hands of the other kid. They looked at you with wide eyes, “Now go show your parents your picture with the hulk!” they said their goodbyes to the hulk and began to excitedly run away.
The table looked at you full of surprise. Besides Nat who had been used to you practicing and sometimes failing rather miserable at the compound. “What, it’s been a long five years. Besides I needed to add something to my resume to get hired as Nat’s secretary” you looked back at them shrugging your shoulders, sending a smile and a crinkle of the nose over to Nat before waving them off, turning back to Banner and directing you back to your prior conversation. The time heist.
Back at the compound, with a brown van in the garage, that has a whole lot of lights coming out of it. This can’t be real, this can’t be something that exists, especially not in a van. But it sucked him in, then spit him out as a tween, then geriatric, then an infant. Then finally Bruce got the right Scott back. Seems time travel isn’t as easy as you had hoped.
Luckily Tony did somehow just solve time travel, and was willing to help. Now it was just getting the rest of the team rounded up.
Nebula, Rocket, and War Machine, were pretty easy to call in. Then Banner and Rocket got sent to New Asgard to get Thor. While Nat had to drag up Clint. Then we set up for time travel you guess. Once again, this feels fake and you're about 78% sure I’m actually dreaming.
“Why don’t we just find baby Thanos and just ya know” Rhodey making a strangling motion, you thought it was not really a bad idea. Everyone else did.
you were able to make sure everything worked as far as the how. Now we had to decide how to get the stones from their different spots on the timeline.
Teams were made, got suits and got ready to time travel. Still 64% this is a dream.
You and Banner got paired together to retrieve the time stone. After getting beamed into the alien invasion in New York you made your way over to the sanctum. The ancient one was there, fighting as well. you tried sneaking past her, but it didn’t quite work. you were also about 5 years too early on meeting Strange but that was alright, the stone was still there. Banner began to walk up on her and just take it
“Banner I wouldn’t” you words were lost as she had already knocked Bruce out of his body and into his astral form. He looked her with a mix of wonder and terror “I told you” throwing you hands up. “I was trying to be bad-cop,” he looked at me defensive. you rolled your eyes. “No, you were being bad everything.” Turning to the ancient one “I’m sorry, we’re just on edge. We really do need that stone.” you pleaded, as you and Bruce followed her trying to make your case. Then she laid out the timeline for you both, describing why each infinity stone was so important to maintain the timeline. “We’ll return it, to this moment, so the timeline will stay intact” Bruce argued. The ancient one countered with the fact that we had to survive to bring it back. “We will, we’ll survive” gesturing between the two of us. “We’ll bring it back, back to its home.” you added from behind his astral form. She remained unconvinced.
“What about Strange?” looking at Bruce whose eyes grew large as she turned to the ancient one. Bruce went into how Strange handed the stone over to Thanos. Surprise was written all over her face as she brought Bruce back into his own body. “Strange was meant to be the best of us.” She almost whispered “He wouldn’t have given the stone away unless it was for a reason.” That was enough to convince her to give us the time stone, handing it to Bruce who placed it in the small, heavily warded box you held out. “I’m counting on you. We all are.” The weight of her words falling on our shoulders. You and Bruce took a look at one another then hit our devices to bring us back to your own time.
Everyone appeared at the same time, well, almost all of us. Clint stood alone, the spot beside him missing as he fell to his knees.
A soul for a soul that’s what the stone required. A soul for a soul.
you don’t know how long you stood there for, unable to will your limbs to move. you could feel the tickle of tears running under and off of your chin, couldn’t even lift a hand to wipe them away.
you made my way out to the dock where the whole cycle of grief was being felt. you had to do this, she gave her life for it. These stupid stones couldn’t not work.
It should have been you, you should have been able to make the jump. Nat was the glue of the whole family circuit. you're just a former agent who Nat adopted basically as a secretary because half the world vanished. you shook my head trying to clear these thoughts. you could have them later, not on company time.
Tony made his own version of the infinity gauntlet and Banner decided that it had to be him that snapped his fingers. You all prepared for the worst. you hit my hands together and brought up a shield of orange to cover me.
His screams made your blood cold, but he snapped his fingers. He did it! It worked!
Then the atmosphere changed and the sunlight above became blocked by a ship, the same one you saw five years ago.
Then there was just fire, dust, and glass everywhere. you body went flying, you found myself falling, nothing to grab onto, even breathing was difficult as everything around was being turned to ash. Clint was not far from you as we went down. you opened a portal in front of you both, then another much closer to the ground. It still wasn’t a graceful landing though. “You couldn't have found a way to make that a little less painful? Like put pillows there or something.” Clint complained. “I didn’t have much time to do more,” you snapped back. Then you found the gauntlet, dirtied and buried under loose rubble, but with all of the infinity stones still intact.
Then the growling came. Clint shot a light down the dark hall or rubble. Not those damn space dogs again. you guys shot arrows and disks of magic at them as you ran. Killing at least a few of them that got too close. Clint set bombs onto the walls that exploded as they came through. Then you found a hole in the ceiling and shot grapples to pull yourselves up, still slicing at the aliens below us. Then they were gone, you got out. Laying there in relief, Nebula came out and grabbed the gauntlet. Except it wasn’t your Nebula.
She held a gun to Clint's face looking between you glowing hands and him. Then Gamora, the not dead one, and future Nebula, your Nebula, came into the light.
Nebula killed her past self without much hesitation.
Then Clint ran for the gauntlet and you kept moving. Then in front of you, yellow sparks. Wong stepped through, “Come on, we need as many hands as we can get to start opening these portals.” you were confused but not about to argue. You and Clint stepped through and into a mass of people. So many people that had been brought back, wide eyes, and a lighter heart that could briefly ignore the horrid battle you were about to walk into.
you wordlessly fell in line, and joined the others who placed their hands out in front of them and began to open portal after portal, as all those we lost began to pour through. So many faces you thought you’d never see again. But, now was not the time, you had a war to win.
Running through at full force, everyone cut through your attackers. Sending up a rope of orange to yank down a monster coming up behind Rhodey, then stabbing it through the heart with a conjured sword. you should have done this mystic arts training sooner. Slicing through the enemy forces with orange discs. you shielded one of the fighters from the side then sent the creature flying backwards. The bombs began to fall on us from everywhere. you lifted my arms up to create a shield as many others did the same. Covering as many people as possible, you briefly let it down to fight as more and more of the aliens began to run at us. you sent a beam of light through them, killing three at once, definitely a new trick to add to your arsenal. There was a missile headed for the van. Shit. you legs felt like they were on autopilot. The race ended like a home run style slide as you reached your hands up to create a shield above them.
Then the firing stopped. And they began to aim for the sky as a bright ball of light came out of the clouds.
you couldn’t help but belly laugh “Ya’ll are fucked now!” you yelled to the aliens that tried to push their way to the van only to get taken down by orange flashes.
Right through the ship, she cut right through the ship!
Suddenly you got tossed to the side, rolling down a pile of rubble, then being jumped on by space creatures. you had put up a shield between you and them in time as they piled on, waiting for the right moment. you closed your eyes and concentrated, blowing the whole shield up and sending them flying in all directions. Only to be met with one of the bigger, scarier, aliens walking up towards you, you raised your hands, ready to fight. Only, as he ran towards you, he turned to dust, almost as if he had run through you. Then you looked around as they all began to evaporate around you, reduced to nothing but ash.
Word got around quickly that it was Stark who had snapped his fingers.
It was Stark who hadn't survived.
A funeral was held not too long after his final battle, at his home by the lake. Pepper walked down the stairs and to the water to release a bouquet of flowers into the lake. you stood in the back next to Maria, taking her hand in as yours as you watched it float away.
After that, everyone broke off into groups, you made my way over to Laura and the kids. “It’s great to see you guys again.” smiling at her, then gesturing towards Clint. “And he’s a lot easier to deal with when you’re around.” You shared a small laugh through glassy eyes. You then saw Wanda behind her, “excuse me Laura”
“There’s a safe house about 15 minutes away, I’m planning on collecting some people and making them come, eat food, be sad, be happy, and most of the other emotions in between.” Here’s the address", handing her a card. "I hope to see you there." you finished. “And if I don’t?” She turned to me. you shrugged, “You’ll miss good food, and I’ll nag you about it a whole lot.” She gave you a smirk and nodded her head.
you gave a card to Rhodey, and Banner. Then you walked up to Sam and Bucky “You didn’t think you were going to be able to evade my invitation did you?” Sam rolled his eyes. “I figured there was a reason you were handing out address cards.”
“There most certainly is, there’s a nearby safe house, and I’m ordering enough food to feed an army. So please come, it’s good to grieve with friends.” Shoving the card in his hand. “And if I don’t?” He crossed his arms. “I will be mad at you forever.” you respond matter of factly, punching him lightly in the shoulder. you swiveled on your feet to point a finger at Bucky “You can’t escape this either sarg. You’re going to come, eat, and grieve.” He gave me a small nod of the head and maybe even a hint of a smile. “Yes ma’am”
“See” you looked back at Sam “This is why he’s my favorite.” Sam threw his hands up in defeat “I better see you both there.” you warned, pointing between them while walking backwards away from the pair.
you got food from about 4 different places so there would hopefully be something for everyone.
You pulled into the driveway and Rhodey’s car was already there. He quickly got out and helped you bring all of the food into the house and set up. More cars came up and the house became more alive as food was picked at and Sam and Bucky pulled up together and walked inside to the room with plenty of food. People talking to each other, sharing stories, laughing, some a little tearful. It was just the six of you but the room still seemed so full. you caught them walking in out of the corner of your eye and began to make your way over. you wrapped Sam into a hug “I’m glad you listened to me at least once.” He laughed as you pulled away, your hands still on both of his arms “I missed you” looking up at him, he smiled back at you, nodding slightly and smiling towards the floor. Letting go of Sam you stepped to the side to look at Bucky who was a few steps behind Sam, feeling out of place and awkward. “Hey, It’s good to see you” You held my arms out slightly with wide eyes and a questioning look. Then you got the small nod you were waiting for and wrapped you arms around his neck, pulling him down slightly. you could feel his arms slowly move to wrap around around your back, barely actually touching you, almost as if you were made out of glass. you let him go and grabbed his hand and did your best to give him a reassuring look. you let go of one hand, then took a step forward and grabbed Sam as well, dragging them both towards the center of the room and the table of food.
Bruce was the first to leave, exhausted and mourning Natasha's death deep in his heart, he loved her, in every version of himself.
Wanda asked if she could stay for the night, you let her know there were plenty of rooms.
Rhodey left next, he had to go to work the next day. Life couldn’t stop moving forward because hearts were stopped.
Then it was just the four of you, and even though only two people left the room felt much emptier. Wanda sat in a large chair with her knees tucked up under her. Sam sat on one end of the couch, a foot up on his opposite knee. While you sat cross legged on the other half. Bucky sat in front of you on the floor, legs stretched out in front of him, eating the last of one of the several desserts you bought. You think it was cheesecake, but you're not sure. you could see something in his hair near the top of his head. Instinctively you reached out to brush it away, causing him to jump and almost drop his food. “Sorry! There was something in your hair!” you quickly explained, as he untensed and moved to lean up against the couch again “It’s okay, I’m just jumpy” he mumbled “No it’s my fault, I should of said something” you assured. “Can you get the thing out of my hair?” asked in a quiet voice. “Yeah, sure” Reaching forward again and gently untangling what you found out was a leaf from his hair.
The conversation returned to some of the places we had visited while we were on the run from the government, and Bucky's stay in Wakanda. you absentmindedly still fiddled with his hair as we sat there talking, taking strands and twisting them and letting the hair run through your fingers as we reminisced.
Eventually Wanda said she was going to bed, she needed to rest. “I’m with her,” Sam agreed, “Do you have rooms for a few more?”
“Always, there’s a room over there, first one to the left.” you pointed down the hallway. Bucky looked up at me waiting for directions. “We’re in the second door on the right.” He nodded then began to stand before pausing to look at you “We?” giving me a confused look. you hesitated for a second. “Yes we, there’s two beds and you haven't exactly had time to get acclimated.” trying to explain and empathize at the same time. He seemed to bristle at this. “Natasha kept everything together over the past five years, and I was basically her secretary. Now she’s gone, so I’m trying to figure out how to take care of everyone like she did.” you quickly elaborated. “A superhero secretary, that’s what Sam called it anyway.” you tried to joke. It did seem to relax him, it also got him to head to the room. You grabbed clothes to go change in the bathroom and went over the articles you had found on night terrors.